Cavern
by nekobaba
Summary: The Leonids are a poor excuse for a night-time class excursion to the beach. Ishida dares the shinigami again. Are Quincy really better at swimming? Uryuu x Ichigo
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: While I've looked up some things, the setting is conveniently construed for this pointless, plotless romp. I'm no professional geologist nor astronomer. Pardon me if the events or geological features here are technically improbable or incongruent with what is known to occur in nature. This is fiction, by the way. And I don't own Bleach._

* * *

**Part 1 **

The meteor shower was ordained by the law of gravitation. The night-time beach excursion to observe it was proposed by Asano Keigo.

Everyone in class went along with the idea, in part out of curiosity, for nobody had ever seen the Delta Leonids. ("For the umpteenth time, they are not a boy band!" Tatsuki was exasperating herself with educating Orihime and Rangiku.)

For the most part though, it was because many of them had never stayed out at night on the beach. Of course, in the back of everyone's mind, there sprouted latent buds of possibilities - perhaps more would come to pass, than just shooting stars and the rise and fall of the tides.

The boom box thumped out a techno beat. Someone had started a little fire in the make-shift barbeque pit. The fact that the strong light destroyed night vision, and made observing the faint stars difficult, was conveniently forgotten.

Along with the pathetic excuse of a telescope (procured with class funds from Toys R Us), Keigo had lugged along all the requisite props for an Ibiza-style beach party, and this concept was proving too seductive for many to resist. Fuelled by beer, pizza, dance music, most were already in the mood to boogie.

So much for star-gazing. Ichigo sighed and turned away from the buzz. The rest of the beach stretched on blanketed in slate greyness under a gibbous moon.

He wandered upshore where the sand ended and the rocks began. He found Ishida on a large boulder.

The Quincy noted his approach and turned in acknowledgment, glasses reflecting the flicker of the distant bonfire.

"Found you." Ichigo climbed nimbly up to the perch beside him.

"Hmmph," Uryuu sounded cynical, as usual.

"Should have known Keigo isn't that much into astronomy," Ichigo offered. "He just wants to have fun."

"You can say that about most of the class too," Uryuu observed wryly.

A collective whoop rang out from the little group at the water's edge. They had finally succeeded in throwing someone into the sea. From the high-pitched stream of expletives spluttered by the victim, it sounded like Mr Mastermind himself had been dunked.

"Whoa," Ichigo craned his neck to get a better look and sniggered. "Looks like he's getting his end of the deal."

"And we used school funds for this trip. Such a joke."

Ichigo snorted. "If anything, we could say this trip has promoted class camaraderie."

Uryuu's lips quirked, with the hint of a smile.

"Hey," Ichigo peered over at him. "Did you just find it funny? Did you?"

"Shut up, Kurosaki." Uryuu adjusted his glasses.

"Don't you 'shut up' me," Ichigo replied more out of habit than intent.

They fell silent. Cicadas whined in the forested hills behind, a timely crescendo to fill in the lull in their conversation.

Ichigo laid back, tucked his hands under his neck and stretched out his legs. The rock, flat in most places against his back, was still warm from the daytime sun. He closed his eyes and breathed in the cool night air. Please, let there be no paranormal disturbances tonight. He just wanted to be here.

He opened his eyes. Ishida still sat, his back straight as ever. The Quincy would have made a great ballet dancer; he had immaculate posture. Ichigo lazily ran a finger down, tracing a graceful curve of muscle through the shirt.

At the touch, Uryuu glanced down.

"What'cha thinking?" Ichigo asked.

Uryuu blinked, as if to assemble his thoughts. "Not much," he answered. "Just thought how nice it would be. To be suspended indefinitely in a chosen space and time."

_This time, and some more secluded space,_ Ichigo wished idly into the dark velvet overhead and the pin-points of light from far off suns. He almost jumped when Uryuu laid a hand on his stomach.

The Quincy leaned down and spoke softly into his ear. "I found this place."

Ichigo caught his hand before he could pull away. "What?"

Uryuu motioned with a tilt of his head.

"Damn, and you've kept it all to yourself," Ichigo scolded, much to Uryuu's amusement.

-- end of Part 1 --


	2. Chapter 2

** Part 2 **

They skidded down from the rock, hopping nimbly from foothold to foothold and headed inland.

Uryuu led the way, darting among the boulders, with just the lightest scrape of sneakers over the sandy rocks. Ichigo barely kept up, but could not keep the grin off his face. At least, they weren't jumping over rooftops in Karakura town.

The sound of the beach party faded off as they passed through a crevice between overhanging rocks and plunged into near-darkness. Ichigo slowed to a walk, instinctively stretching out his hands.

His fingers brushed against warm skin.

"Impatient, aren't you?" Uryuu's whispery voice hung like a spider's thread in the confined space.

Was he? "Don't be so full of yourself. Just don't want to smash my nose in."

They continued, the way becoming more defined in shades of grey as their eyes adapted. Sparse moonlight filtered through an overhead canopy of bush that grew over the rocky funnel.

The narrow crevice widened gradually into a small cave. In the opposite wall, a dark opening gaped - just tall and wide enough for a grown adult to crawl into.

"After you," Uryuu invited.

Ichigo smirked at the familiar understated challenge. _Who's afraid of the dark?_

Buoyed by ego, he hunkered down to fit his tall frame into the hole and started to feel his way forward on hands and knees.

"Ow, fuck ..."

He rubbed at his throbbing forehead, furious.

There was a muffled snicker behind him. Within two seconds, he had already slammed into some unseen protrusion on the low roof.

"Third eye," Uryuu reminded.

_I know! _

He frowned in an effort to focus - this sort of thing didn't come naturally to him. The contours of the low ceiling took fuzzy shape in his extrasensory dimension.

He pressed on forward, feeling his way over the cold rough floor. He was usually happy about his height; it was enough to project "don't mess with me" if he scowled hard enough. On lousy days, that paved a way through the throng of twerps at school. But it was not helping now. He didn't belong in here. His long limbs could get him jammed in this narrow place, like oversized flotsam choking the intricate plumbing network of dank underground grottoes.

A sliver of primal fear germinated in a corner of his mind. He tried to quash it, but it wormed its way out through the cracks and spawned disturbing thoughts. The cramped position and the subterranean darkness - he was being smothered, suffocated.

Trapped underground in Poe-esque fashion, would one ever see the light of day?

Damn, he could use some distraction.

He pondered his particular predicament. Here he was on all fours, buttocks in the air, with one prude of a Quincy very close behind. To _his_ behind. He briefly considered pulling an abrupt stop and flushed at the associated mental barrage of bad puns and pornography. Funny how dirty thoughts could be one's salvation. He now had his mind safely anchored in the gutter.

Testing, testing, he thought and wriggled once. Twice.

"Stop that," Uryuu snapped. "You're ... "

"Messing up the radar?"

"... ruining the scenery."

"Admit it, you _were_ checking out my ass."

Oh he could just picture Uryuu's shocked and scandalized expression.

"Only enough to gauge braking distance. Don't fancy snuggling up to you in here." Uryuu's voice echoed dispassionately.

_Liar_.

"I'm ... wet." Ichigo realized belatedly his jeans were damp from the knees down and clinging to his legs. Next thing, his hands plopped into a shallow depth of cool water. The rock was smoother here now. He brought a hand up to his mouth and tasted the sea.

"Straight ahead, winds back to the coast." Uryuu informed helpfully.

"So, this is what have you been up to all afternoon huh. Having fun in dark places all on your own," Ichigo jeered.

They crawled on. The ceiling rose and they sat back briefly on their haunches, to stretch out their backs.

"Gets interesting at the end." Uryuu hinted slyly.

"Yeah, I'll bet," _If it isn't, I'll strip you naked and make it so. _

The water gradually deepened to the waist. They splashed on. Judging from their echoes, the tunnel had broadened. Ichigo could sense the way forward had ended abruptly in a headwall.

Uryuu pushed past him and waded tentatively along the wall, sending gentle sploshes through the pool.

"Here," he announced with a small hint of triumph. He reached out to pull Ichigo towards him. "Step off here, to the right. I'll see you on the other side. It's beautiful."

"Wait ... "

A soft splunk, and Ichigo was alone.

Trust Ishida to pull the craziest stunts. Beautiful? On the other side? The bastard, what the hell was he thinking?

-- end of Part 2 --


	3. Chapter 3

** Part 3 **

Ichigo gulped in as much air as he could and dove down.

He groped around, found the opening, and propelled himself into it. Entertaining a little optimism, he felt around above his head. Negative. Foolish hope then, no air pocket.

He scissor-kicked strongly through, counting the strokes. Just how many would it take to catch up with Ishida?

This had better be a straight run. He couldn't afford to be orienteering down here. Eight, nine ... think slow, think steady. Conserve the energy. On ten, a surge pushed him back the way he came. He was so surprised he lost half the air he held.

_Shit._

Ichigo fought the current and swam like a fiend. Too far gone to turn back now. If Ishida could do this - eleven, twelve - it couldn't be that bad, could it?

His lungs burned. Man, this was getting serious. Would he make it through this cursed blind swim? He might never be a substitute shinigami again. Perhaps they'd make him a real one then. And Ishida - he was going to fucking skin his ass if he ever met him on the watery way to Soul Society ...

_Thirteen, running out... fourteen, not enough!_

God, he wanted to inhale so bad. Even if he had to breathe in water ...

_What comes after fourteen, partner?_

Fifteen, he answered with a vengeance and was sucked forward again. Into light.

He angled upwards, desperate for the faint shimmer. Whatever it was.

Ichigo burst through the surface, coughing and sputtering into - thank god - air.

"Over here." He heard Ishida's reedy voice, and squinted into the blinding white halogen beam from a head torch. He had a torch all along? The mean, sadistic boy scout!

He reached out to cling to rock, hauled himself half out of the water and proceeded to spew profanity.

"Fuck you Ishida!" Ichigo heaved. His voice reverberated violently in the cavern.

"It's high tide," Uryuu commented drily.

"Thought I was going to drown. Shit." He spat in disbelief.

Ichigo glared up at the Quincy. Half shrouded in silhouette under the hard light of the torch, clothes and hair clinging to his slight frame, Ishida Uryuu certainly did not looked like the type to sew, shoot _and_ swim. What was he, a goddamn triathlete?

Ichigo snarled and rolled himself out of the water. His Nikes drained copiously. He shucked off the squelching sneakers in disgust.

"You're crazy, you know that?" Ichigo vowed he would rather turn off the next exit to Soul Society before giving Uryuu the kick of him acknowledging this latest display of athletic prowess.

Besides, he was still catching his breath, in the underground air that smelt of earth, damp, age-old erosion processes, ancient stone and gritty minerals. Ichigo flopped over onto his back and pushed his wet hair out of his eyes.

And had to make sense of what he saw.

The moon. He was seeing the moon. An incomplete disc set almost exactly in a small circle of night sky, it peeked in like a cat's eye through a gap overhead where the ceiling caved in long ago. And its light gleamed off a huge shaft of white -- a frozen treacle of milky stone that flowed down from the ceiling and hung just out of a standing person's reach, straining towards the ground in its futile heft.

Uryuu's torch beam cut through the semi-darkness and flirted along the soft curved underside of the pendulous bulge. For an underground feature, it looked unnaturally clean, free of any dirt and soil. And it was large. If he could hug it - he stretched out his arms to the side for measure - he could probably wrap his arms only halfway around.

The moon in its orbit, the distant opening in the roof, and his pupils in some underground cave all perfectly aligned. What were the odds?

Water splattered onto rock. Uryuu was done wringing out his shirt and draped it on a protruding shelf. He padded over barefoot to peer down at Ichigo.

"Impressive, isn't it?"

Ichigo realized that his jaw was hanging slack.

"What are you thinking?" Uryuu asked.

Sign up for that geology class next term? Join the spelunking club on their next excursion?

-- end of Part 4 --


	4. Chapter 4

** Part 4 **

That stalactite was huge, and looked so ...

"Calcite," Uryuu continued. He pulled the torch off his head and played the beam along the formation. "Deposited over the years, by gradual precipitation as a dripping solution of calcium bicarbonate loses carbon dioxide to the atmosphere."

_Well, if it ain't Professor Ishida. _

Uryuu lowered himself to sit beside him, forearms balanced on neat narrow knees. "But of course, that wasn't on your mind." He slanted a glance at Ichigo, expectant.

"Ok, you want to know what's on my mind?" Ichigo huffed his irritation and propped himself up on one elbow. " I am thinking - wow, amazing." He flung one arm skywards. "Eighth wonder of the world outside of Soul Society. Epic approach route included. Let's take some pictures. Jeez, we could have died. Drowned. Floaters washed up on the beach tomorrow morning."

Uryuu set his torch down. The reflected light slid across his glasses, as slippery as mercury. He examined Ichigo, in a patient academic manner, as if deciphering hieroglyphs on a freshly uncovered relic.

"It'll take more than this to kill you. Besides, you won't let yourself live it down, if you lost. To me."

So patently true. It would have been utterly humiliating. _But I might still get by. If I knew you were around to call me a wuss._

"Uryuu, I wasn't just talking about ime/i being washed up on the beach - "

"The fact that we're having this conversation shows that I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

Ichigo wanted to bite back with something. Anything. A smart, stupid, blatant and rude retort to keep himself upright, rooted and on the same level playing ground. But he had no reply.

He tucked his hands back under his head. He was well-versed with Uryuu's strengths and weaknesses. He could trust him to hold his own with his Quincy abilities. Hell, he could even predict when the guy would shut himself within the walls of his idiosyncrasies and launch off into space to orbit on dork mode. He thought he knew the extent of him.

His gaze locked itself on Uryuu's sharp profile, etched with shadow, and he wondered how many other secrets it hid.

* * *

Arisawa Tatsuki always prided herself on her powers of observation and the fact she never hesitated to come down with a bang whenever things went wrong. Lately, a fair number of things did but they weren't anything that a well-timed sucker punch or a bout of hearty ranting could solve.

She couldn't believe that almost nobody, not even parents, teachers, school principals, policemen and others supposedly imbued with higher authority, seemed to notice that things were indeed weird these days.

Those new "classmates", for example. The one with the shiny pate and the other with the flaming red hair. That Madarame and Abarai didn't look like your average Karakura highschoolers. Were they yakuza on probation? Bumpkin bullies who didn't have a clue what vending machines were? Heck, even her grandma's countryside had vending machines.

She wondered _where_ they came from. They had just dropped out of thin air like from some other dimension. Weird and weirder still, even Ichigo, Orihime and Ishida radiated the same strange vibes and was on disturbingly familiar terms with the transplants, as if they'd just spent the past summer together playing soccer friendlies.

Well, that was a mystery, but if she knew anything about their dimension, galaxy, universe or whatever, it must be abundant in shameless freeloaders and good-for-nothing loafers.

The odd markings on their skin, the way they posed and lounged around like they owned the place and everyone else, eating almost all the pizza (they had to phone for another delivery), throwing back the beers like beer nuts. The pile of fist-crushed cans was building into a minor landfill and no sir, these hustlers were still as sober as day.

Shiny caught her looking, and flicked her a piercing stare. She jutted her chin out in silent challenge. He just sneered, almost amused and went back to poking the campfire and Abarai with back-slaps and vulgar tales.

One was a blessing though. She noticed how Orihime got along with the blond busty one. That was a relief - a huge one, no offense meant. Petty envy was beneath Tatsuki, another thing she could be dead proud of.

At last, here was a kindred spirit who could squeal together with Orihime and appreciate her gross tastes in food and other girly things. Tatsuki had to admit though, that looks were deceptive - Rangiku had clout that matched the depth of her cleavage. And that helped a lot to keep Honshou Chizuru at bay.

Speaking of which, said irritant was now curled up next to her, occasionally breaking out into incoherent babbles. "Kiss me Hime-chaan ..." Chizuru moaned and flung her arms around Tatsuki's legs.

Urgh.

Thank goodness, the beer and the pills worked. Just that she really wanted to kick the bitch into the sea after that and be done with it. That would have solved a lot of problems, but Orihime would never have approved. So Tatsuki just gritted her teeth and wedged herself in between Chizuru and Orihime.

The things she'd do for her friends.

Now, Ichigo - that fellow never really fancied the noise and raucous merry-making that was Keigo's style. So she fully understood the reason why he would want time-out.

Tatsuki noticed how Orihime looked wistful for a split second when she saw Ichigo amble off down the beach. Shortly, she had turned her attention back to cooing over a tub of artichoke/salami/vanilla ice cream with Rangiku, but Tatsuki had felt the ache when a soft yearning nestled behind those wide eyes.

The two figures on the rocks - she had noticed them too. How they quickly flitted away like moths to seek some distant unseen flame.

One more thing that Tatsuki prided herself on was her power of discretion that told her when she should just keep her observations to herself.

-- end of Part 4 --


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5**

_gravity is on the increase as time goes by _

_my body returns to the earth _

_there is sky up in the air _

_we never come close to each other _

_but here we exist as it is _

_ l'arc en ciel  
_

He feels the bubbling of a spring inside. He hasn't laughed for a while, since he was six, when he made his first bow and found it actually shot straight. It's rather strange. Perhaps it has something to do with that one road in front, and nothing to do but to take it.

* * *

"Hey, it's almost ten, where are the Leonids?"

"Could it be you got the date wrong, Keigo?"

"Oh please, he doesn't _get_ any dates ... "

"Another round of heave-ho, sailor?"

"W ... wait, I did my research, okay? See for yourself!" Keigo began to scoot away on the sand, waving his rolled-up sea-soaked copy of Amateur Astronomer like a talisman.

Orihime tried to placate the disgruntled masses. "Well, maybe we should be patient. The last time I went to a concert, we had to wait an hour before the real stars appeared ... aha, hahaha ..."

Tatsuki sighed, and couldn't help but smile at another of Orihime's flukes.

"Uryuu, you're not in your right mind, I'm telling you," Ichigo said. "You have a death wish."

"I do _not_ have a death wish." Uryuu said tightly.

"Going caving alone, sneaking down here all by yourself. Saying you're going off to that beautiful land far beyond ... "

"Did I say that?"

"See? You don't even realize it."

"Realize what?"

"You don't even hang out with us anymore. Take a good look at yourself. These are signs of depression, I mean, you've lost ... you're losing ..." His words lost their steam and condensed quietly. Damn those double entendres.

"So this is about me. Losing _it_."

Uryuu might never use a spirit bow again. It still made him feel a twinge of guilt. "Sorry."

"It's ok."

"Urahara could - "

"No." Flat and emphatic - any further trespass would probably earn him an arrow through the chest.

After a moment, Uryuu went on, more gently. "It's just ... falling back down to ground state for me. It would take time to adjust. But for you ... "

But for _him_, it was an altogether different bucket of fish. The possibility of being energized into the hollow orbital from which there was no return, making a quantum jump into such an infinitely high-energy state that his self might disintegrate to become nothingness. By now, Ichigo knew the flight-path so well he could trace it with his eyes closed - the trajectory of the issue that always came round to him.

He was the possessed priest clutching on to his license to exorcise.

Deal with your own demon before you try to save the world, Ichigo. How ironic. How untimely. He wanted to laugh at the helplessness of the situation. Doomsday was coming, while people partied. The black tide of Aizen was gathering momentum, turning against Soul Society. Innocents, mortal or otherwise, would be crushed. And he probably could not make a difference, or even tip the balance the right way.

He was hemmed in, cornered. It was there. It was always there, to haunt his dreams, shackle him in endless head-splitting nightmares. The demon he needed, the demon he didn't need. Cleaved together at the hip like Siamese twins.

"Just leave it ..." Ichigo rubbed absently at his temple. That unblinking moon staring down at him was suddenly too bright. The signposts were large, obvious. He always thought he could carve his own way. He didn't need them.

Or did he?

Hirako Shinji. The name flashed in Ichigo's mind like an unsolicited name card in the hand of a conniving used car salesman. There _must_ be some better way.

Ichigo sighed and sat up, trying to stretch out the tightness that had crept into his neck.

"Fine, I'll deal with my demon. Soon. For now, he's all tied down and locked up." A pause. "Ok, blindfolded, gagged."

As if the sucker inside would yield to anything as pedestrian as sports psych visualization technique. He grimaced at his own pathetic little joke and glanced over at his silent companion to see if it had hit a spot.

Uryuu stared at him. And then leaned over, in a slide of blanketing shadow, to rest the back of a cool hand on his cheek.

Ichigo heard the faraway drips of water falling onto stone. Life-saving drops after a long drought. Except that he hadn't realized how thirsty he had gotten. Been thinking those world-saving responsible thoughts for far too long.

Ichigo tilted his face to lean into the touch, but it disappeared. As suddenly as he was pushed down - "whoa, hey ..." - and straddled in one fluid sweeping movement.

-- the rest of the chapter is too risque to post here, it's on my livejournal (see my profile) --


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